[UJE] maps
Posted: 11 May 2012, 17:29
[UJE]'s Niek is one of the greatest ET map creators of all time, but he uses to do something I hate, which is radically change stuff as he releases new betas of a map. Once a map goes beta and people get used to the gameplay, new betas should only fix problems, not change the basic map structure and gameplay. This was the case with [UJE] Amsterdam and [UJE] Egypt Attack. In Amsterdam's case, we used to play the beta 2 version. When I tried a newer beta, Niek had changed lots of stuff like the position of the field radio (where the docs are taken to win the map), which no one could find anymore, and the position of the CP, besides changing the river texture to a horrible one. I don't know if he read my comment at http://www.wolffiles.de, but in the final version both the CP and the field radio went back to their original places, although the lousy river texture was mantained and there is now a small building pointlessly surrounding and hiding the CP.
Now in Egypt Attack's case, changes were much more extreme, and the latest beta 5 is simply unplayable. In the beginning of the map, axis can't wait for allies near the water anymore (or if they can, I couldn't find a passage, the original one was locked), so allies get to the tank seconds after the game starts, and lots of fun gameplay possibilities (like axis players swimming to the allied boat spawn) are gone. Then when the allies steal the tank (which now takes about 30 seconds), axis won't spawn near the pyramid anymore, but all the way back, by the truck, making it almost impossible to stop the allied advance, and again, killing lots of gameplay possibilities. These issues can't be fixed by me, and I'm dumping this horrible beta 5 version and putting beta 3 online again, despite that version's serious lag issues (at least with Jaymod, haven't tested it with other mods and a full server). I hope Niek will restore the original gameplay in the final version, or I may end up having to remove this great map from the [>NF<] rotation.
Now in Egypt Attack's case, changes were much more extreme, and the latest beta 5 is simply unplayable. In the beginning of the map, axis can't wait for allies near the water anymore (or if they can, I couldn't find a passage, the original one was locked), so allies get to the tank seconds after the game starts, and lots of fun gameplay possibilities (like axis players swimming to the allied boat spawn) are gone. Then when the allies steal the tank (which now takes about 30 seconds), axis won't spawn near the pyramid anymore, but all the way back, by the truck, making it almost impossible to stop the allied advance, and again, killing lots of gameplay possibilities. These issues can't be fixed by me, and I'm dumping this horrible beta 5 version and putting beta 3 online again, despite that version's serious lag issues (at least with Jaymod, haven't tested it with other mods and a full server). I hope Niek will restore the original gameplay in the final version, or I may end up having to remove this great map from the [>NF<] rotation.